Coupling technologies for Earth System Modelling

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the software currently used in climate modelling in general and in CMIP5 in particular to couple the numerical codes representing the different components of the Earth System. The coupling technologies presented show common features, such as the ability to communicate and regrid data, and also offer different functions and implementations. Design characteristics of the different approaches are discussed as well as future challenges arising from the increasing complexity of scientific problems and computing platforms. of the constituent models. In general, coupling data must be regridded and passed between the components subject to different constraints such as conservation of physical quantities, stability of the flux exchange numerics, consistency with physical processes occurring near the component surface, etc. In addition, computational efficiency of the coupling on parallel hardware is of course required. This paper provides a review and a short comparative analysis of the main coupling technologies currently used in Earth System Modelling.